Oceans Apart: Art and the Pacific with James Fox

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James Fox traces the impact of the west's contact with the peoples of the Pacific

Art historian Dr James Fox traces the momentous impact of the west's contact with the peoples and cultures of the Pacific. It is a story of exploration, encounter and exploitation.

BBC Four

James Fox

Russell Barnes

Alex Brisland

Tom Thistlethwaite

Clare Burns

Jack C Arnold

ClearStory Ltd

Samuel Jackson

Ben Harding

Oceans Apart: Art and the Pacific with James Fox: Series 1: Episode 3: New Zealand

New Zealand

Episode 3

Episode 3: New Zealand

Series 1

BBC Four - Oceans Apart: Art and the Pacific with James Fox, Series 1, New Zealand

James Fox discovers how the Maori have maintained their distinctive culture.

Documentary series. James Fox explores how New Zealand's indigenous Maori people resisted colonisation and marginalisation and maintained their distinctive culture.

Concluding the series on the clash between the West and Pacific peoples and cultures, James Fox explores how New Zealand's indigenous Maori people resisted colonisation and marginalisation and maintained their distinctive culture, so much so that it is now an integral part of modern New Zealand.

He encounters some of the greatest works of Maori carving, from the exquisitely painted paddles given to Captain Cook, to works by one of the great masters of Maori art, Tene Waitere, and shows how, from the beginning of their encounters with Europeans, the Maori adapted outside influences, whether it was modern firearms or the new religion of Christianity and produced fascinating hybrid work that ranges from elaborately carved rifle butts to a Madonna and child statue adorned with the Ta Moko, the sacred Maori facial tattoo.

Today, James Fox finds Maori culture in the midst of a full-scale Renaissance, embraced not only by the Maori themselves but all New Zealanders.

Oceans Apart: Art and the Pacific with James Fox: Series 1

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James Fox traces the impact of the west's contact with the peoples of the Pacific.

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Oceans Apart: Art and the Pacific with James Fox

Series 1

Episode 3: New Zealand

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